Declaration
Drigondii Sheii’Cronell slowed his Dragon 52-F and brought it to a stop inside the storm. Its electrical activity would be perfect cover against aerial attacks. “Sir, we’ve arrived. Dragon Riders are in position, and coordinates are set. All conditions are go.” The call went out over the Dragons’ encrypted comm units. It was time to begin.
“Very well,” Drigondii responded. “Remember the plan. No one gets in or out until I’m done. You know what to do. Comm silence is hereby enacted until I declare otherwise. Execute.” He plotted his own set of coordinates and waited. The first stage of the operation would be over in forty-five seconds at most. Dragon Riders were second in skill only to the Valkyries, and they were all busy with vital, solo missions elsewhere onworld.
His greatest concern went out to Terira. She had said that she’d be careful, but she never was, as evidenced by her mission to the Watch. Nonetheless, that had been the most important discovery in Thorlinthian history. His wife always picked the most dangerous missions, though, and he hated it, just as she hated what she knew he was doing now. In fact –
Drigondii looked at the clock just in time. The second stage was ready to begin. “This is going to be an interesting experience,” he said to himself. What he was about to do hadn’t exactly been perfected yet, but he was sure he could do it. Focusing, he activated the internal hype system that he had designed and which resided only in his Dragon. He prayed that his coordinates had been accurate and exhaled completely just as the Hype Driver approached the appropriate level. “Why does this always hurt so much?” His helmet closed, and he imploded.
Drigondii’s legs tensed as he dropped into the UN’s general assembly meeting. The representative of China was speaking, but he came to a stammering halt when he saw a grown man in the fully decorated flight armor of a Sheii’Cronell hype into the room about ten feet above the ground and drop onto his feet as silently and elegantly as the nimblest of felines. Then the helmet opened. He simply back-stepped away when Drigondii began to approach him, Drigondii’s irises shifting in an almost liquid manner from blood red to a gentle mahogany. He stopped only when he realized that Drigondii was approaching not him but the podium.
Everyone in the room had their breath held, waiting for the security and bodyguards that would never arrive. Those men were all dead, carefully eliminated by the other six Dragon Riders, who had been vehemently training for this moment the entire trip to Earth. No help was arriving for these men until Drigondii was finished with them.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of these United Nations of Earth, I come to you on behalf of the Empire of Thorlinthia.” Drigondii spoke these words carefully, allowing the translators to realize that their jobs were now a million times more important than they had ever been before. “I have not come here today to kill you, though you should not feel as if that means I won’t. I am here to declare an occupation, one which is taking place at this very moment.
“I have 20 Spacecraft Ultracarriers in orbit right now. As evidence, I present you this.” Drigondii reached out with his powers, feeling for the subsystems of his Dragon, activating its hyping protocols and engaging the reactor. A moment later, Drigondii’s Dragon 52-F was gently crooning its drives inside the General Assembly Hall, and he smiled devilishly.
The Assembly Members all stood and stifled a yell at this point, maintaining a remarkable composure about them, staying true to the fact that they represented their respective countries. Drigondii was impressed. “My name is Drigondii Sheii’Cronell, and I am your new Monarch. Those of you who do not wish to comply will be destroyed without mercy. If you fail to maintain order in your nations, your police and military will be taken and replaced by our own forces. I want you all to understand that–“
It finally happened. One of the members of the General Assembly began to charge toward Drigondii in an attempt to attack him. The other members looked on, waiting for him to be turned to ash. Surely, something would happen before he reached Drigondii, wouldn’t it? But then, when he was only a foot out of reach of Drigondii, the man who had charged, the representative of China, found himself staring at nothing but air.
He faltered, unsure where Drigondii had gone. The other members watched in terror as Drigondii swooped low, catching the man by his hips and swinging him up and over his head. They stared in awe as a man in full, obviously heavy body armor flip forward such that upon landing, his left heel planted firmly into his attacker’s jaw, and he continued forward, tearing apart the attacker’s mandible and stopping with his other leg on the opposite side of his head. As Drigondii finished the turn, standing straight, still holding his attacker by the hip, he pulled the man’s skull away from his neck, tearing his head in two by the mouth and pulling his spinal cord out of his neck, killing the attacker in what was possibly the most gruesome moment of each remaining General Assembly Member’s life.
“Do not mistake my position as a sign that I am some weak politician!” Drigondii shouted at the men, who had almost all gone into shock. “I am not a weak or senseless man who will be assassinated and overthrown! However, nor am I God, who comes before all things and will undoubtedly judge me for what I do today. I am Drigondii Sheii’Cronell, and I am your present and future Monarch. You will not kneel before me for I am a man and not a god, but you will understand that you are all of you beneath me. This is not a lesson I am unwilling to teach.”
His eyes had returned in that moment of fury to the shining blood red unique to a Sheii’Cronell. It was a look of sheer, unadulterated, unfaltering power that he now cast over the General Assembly, and it was met with the appropriate reaction: raw, unimaginable fear. This was a new day, and the world would come to know the man known as Drigondii Sheii’Cronell.